The Japanese Mizuho Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, as well as the american J. P. Morgan will grant a loan to Russia’s state-run gas firm Gazprom in amount of €800 million.

The Japanese Mizuho Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, as well as the american J. P. Morgan will grant a loan to Russia’s state-run company Gazprom in amount of €800 million, reported Gazprom on December 12, 2016.

A contract is expected to be concluded during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Japan on December 15 and 16 to hold talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the sources said.

The move comes as Japan works out details of an 8-point blueprint Abe presented to Putin earlier this year to forge closer economic ties.

Abe hopes to make progress in the decades-old territorial dispute over Russian-held, Japanese-claimed islands off Hokkaido.

Major Japanese banks have so far been cautious about providing loans to Russia, citing such reasons as the United States and Europe imposing economic sanctions on Moscow in reaction to its «annexation» in 2014 of the Crimea region in eastern Ukraine.

In addition to Sumitomo Mitsui and Mizuho, JPMorgan Chase & Co. of the United States is likely to join the co-financing program, the sources said.

At the same time, Gazprom discussed the cooperation with another Japanese bank, Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), in particular, to finance the construction of the 3rd phase of the liquefied natural gas project Sakhalin 2.